Media SDK lifetime comes to an end

[mikk9]

This is not a bug report, just a question.

I've just learned that Media SDK API 1.35 is projected to be the last API of 1.x API series and Media SDK won't be developed further (just for critical updates but no more features). More infos can be found here: https://github.com/Intel-Media-SDK/MediaSDK#media-sdk-support-matrix
https://spec.oneapi.io/versions/latest/elements/oneVPL/source/appendix/VPL_intel_media_sdk.html

Intel is switching to oneAPI Video Processing Library, upcoming generations like Alder Lake might only support oneAPI VPL.

oneVPL introduces API 2.x series which is not backward compatible with API 1.x series

Will it affect the development of QSVEnc?

[rigaya]

As the basic API functions are the same, I think we can move on to the oneAPI Video Processing Library.

We might need to change the MFX session initialization part to adapt to the new API, as it introduces new functions for session initialization.

The removals from the old API will have no effect to QSVEnc, as none of these features are used.

• Audio support
• ENC and PAK interfaces
• User plugins architecture (Was used until QSVEnc 4.xx but removed usage in QSVEnc 5.xx)
• External buffer memory management
• Video Processing extended runtime functionality
• External threading
• Multi-frame encode
• Surface Type Neutral Transcoding

It seems to turned out well not going in to these non-major features provided in MediaSDK.

[mikk9]

Sounds good. The only downside is that VPL requires Broadwell or newer and therefore Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, Haswell won't support it. But this is no surprise because there is no driver support for this old hardware anymore. On windows only Gen9 and newer are supported in newest drivers.

[mikk9]

Intel® Media SDK has a new name, oneVPL, but it is not a new software development kit. oneVPL is the 2.x API continuation of Intel® Media SDK API. The API upgrade provides an enhanced programming model and access to new features available on future hardware not yet released. In general, API updates and new hardware capabilities will be added only to the oneVPL API.

In general, new features, API updates and improvements will be added only to oneVPL API. This also includes updates to enable future hardware features.

Intel® Media SDK API is nearing its final update. Implementation updates, such as security patches and critical bug fixes, will continue as needed. This document will be updated as more information becomes available.
https://software.intel.com/content/www/us/en/develop/articles/upgrading-from-msdk-to-onevpl.html

[mikk9]

Intel® One API Video Processing Library GPU Runtime* release is now included.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19344/intel-graphics-windows-dch-drivers.html

Driver 9805 officially supports VPL.

[rigaya]

I've updated to QSVEnc 6.00 which will be based on VPL, I have confirmed on i7 11700K (RocketLake) that API v2.04 is successfully loaded using driver 9805.

After a rough test, I think QSVEnc seems to work fine with this build.

[mikk9]

I found a decoding problem with one video, hardware decoding isn't working anymore. Hardware decoding works on 5.06 with the exact same settings but doesn't on 6.00. Only software decoding works. This is the video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HERO_-_Blender_Open_Movie-full_movie.webm

I've tried 1080p VP9 and 720p VP9.

[rigaya]

It seems like there is problem with VP9 hw decode when using API 2.xx in d3d11 mode. QSVEnc 6.01 with "--d3d9" has no problem, but I'm not being able to find out why VP9 hw decode does not work with d3d11 mode.

[mikk9]

With API 2.04 the feature check shows a couple of new features are supported for HEVC. Adaptive_I, Adaptive_B and Adaptive_LTR.

[mikk9]

It seems like there is problem with VP9 hw decode when using API 2.xx in d3d11 mode. QSVEnc 6.01 with "--d3d9" has no problem, but I'm not being able to find out why VP9 hw decode does not work with d3d11 mode.

It works with d3d9 but it uses the Media SDK 1.35 API instead of VPL API 2.04.

QSVEncC (x64) 6.01 (r2458) by rigaya, Sep 6 2021 12:55:13 (VC 1929/Win)
OS Windows 10 x64 (19043) [UTF-8]
CPU Info 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7 @ 2.80GHz (4C/8T)
GPU Info Intel Iris(R) Xe Graphics (96EU) 100-1300MHz [28W] (30.0.100.9864)
Media SDK QuickSyncVideo (hardware encoder) PG, 1st GPU, API v1.35

[rigaya]

Somehow current VPL API seems to have d3d11 support only.

I have added --check-impl option in QSVEnc 6.02. This shows the result of MFXEnumImplementations which shows the supported acceleration modes.

In Icelake (i5 1035G7 + 9864 driver), I get both d3d11 and d3d9 modes. (mfxhw64 means Media SDK)

API 1.35: hw(mfxhw64), Acceleration d3d11
API 1.35: hw(mfxhw64), Acceleration d3d9

but on Rocketlake (i7 11700K + 9864 driver), I only get d3d11. (mfx-gen means VPL)

API 2.03: hw(mfx-gen), Acceleration d3d11

Therefore, on Rocketlake --d3d9 falls back to Media SDK 1.35 API, and VP9 hw decode works fine there.

[mikk9]

On i7-1165G7 9894 Beta

API 2.05: hw(mfx-gen), Acceleration d3d11

[rigaya]

Thanks for the result of i7 1165G7, so it's the same in beta driver. I'll look forward to the further new drivers.